Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-04-14
A BROKENSII.ENCE.

was handsome child of years, alto
gether unlike the stout woman bustling
about the kitchen, intent upon preparing
the midday meal.
She was young, but her appearance was
not youthful; dull and stolid, her face,
was relieved from stupidity by a firm,
weli-shaped mouth. and a square chin,
that gave her a look of infexible deter
mination; and Mrs. John Tolliver's char
aeter amply demonstrated the sincerity
of these outward and visable signs.
She was called "set" by her acquan-
tances, and she prided herself on "knOw-
IN her own mind and stickin' to her
opinions"
She had been very plain girl, and the
people of the little Kentucky town had
never recovered from the surprise she
had occasioned them by marrying John
Lolliver, a thriftytyOung merchant of the
place, and man especially distinguished
as being the "handsomest Teller in the
county an the likeliest.''
Clayville folks 'lOwed that that Sallie
Bell Jarvis he'd jes' set herself out to hev
John Tolliver, an they want no chance
fer I'M mon bird with cat"
Nor that the present Mrs. Tolliver was
at all feline in her methods of procedure;
she was open and above board in all her
dealings.
Having discovered herself to be deeply
In love with John Tolliver, she had de-
termed to be his wife.
He being of dreamy nature, averse to
calculation, and too kindly natured to
harm fly, had not resisted Miss Jarvis
calm appropriation of him; in fact he
rather liked it, there being something
strong and self-contained about the wom-
an that satisfied him of his own unlikeli-
ness upon finding himself engaged he
had wondered a little how it had happen
ed, and had submitted with some gratifi-
cation.
For several years this oddly assorted
pair had belied all unfriendly speculation
concerning them.
Folks who give I'm just two years were
surprised to find them a devoted couple
at the end of that period.
Moreover they had an object of adcra-
alton in their child named Theodore, as
being worthy of an appellation of digni-
fed sound, however uniformly mispro-
nounced.
Theodore was as fine looking as his
father; he was likely to, and his infat-
uated parents cherished high hopes of his
future.
His natural gifts should be developed
by education, and Kentucky need have
no fears for her future, having Theodore
Tolliver's name as an earnest greatness
to be.
When this child of promise had reached
his fourth year ia serious occasion arose;
he was old enough to attend Sabbath
chool, and the question presenting itself
was this:
"Should he go to the time-honored
Presbyterian church. or to the small tiny
meeting house where small band of en-
thusiasts were struggling to establish
foothold for universalismw
Mrs. Tolliver put her foot down with
her resolution firmly fixed beneath it.
''Her folks had been Presbyterian from
away back; she herself had joined when
she was knee hiwh to duck, and she
lowed that no child of hern should ever
show their face inside of no Universalist
church,
Mr.. Tolliver had agreed with his wife
on every subject that had arisen during
their married life, because generally it
was great deal easier to agree than to
establish an argument of any kind to the
contrary.
But right here he had an unalterable be-
lief.
mo child Of mine," said he, ssshall git
his head full o. idees about hell and devils
with pitchforks, and bottomless pits filled
with fire bet white hot, and people a-burn-
in in 'em forever!"
Mr.. Tolliver's mind had been inflamed
at an early period of life by some of the
ingenious and highly colored pictures Of
the internal regions, which in past years
l. L. To.4 IL 81
full and the liveliest apprehension of the
sinner.
Perhaps a vivid recollection of his
own childish dreams, enlivened by these
masterpieces of the graphic art, con-
duced to his discrimination in Theodore's
case.
The question thus became the one topic
of conversation in the Tolliver's house
hold, and many and long were the controv
ersies which it engendered.
Finally, after one longer and louder
than its predecessors, matters reached a
crisis.
Rising from her place, Mrs. Tolliver
delivered her diction; unheeded the tin
work-box fell from her lap, spreading its
motley contents over the kitchen floor,
and furnishing a rare treat to white kit
ten belonging to Theodore.
81 want you to understand" she began,
her voice almost inarticulate with wrath,
shat I'll never speak TO you in this world
again, till you take back them words yoz
spoke agin' my church,"
''Don't you fret yerse'f that I will" re-
sponded her husband, equally angry.
''Itll be a long day and a cold day tell
l do, an don't We open Yer head to me
nuther, tell yer ready fer THEODORE ter go
whar tell 'em to CO."
Thus the matter began. On these few
words, uttered in the brief blindness of
wrath, John Tolliyer and his wife based
their future conduct.
Three years passed by, and in all that
time they had not spoken. save through
their child.
He, poor littlo fellow, had come to re-
gard his parents mode of life as nothing
unusual Clayville had smiled at first,
and afterward had accepted the affair as
an established fact, worthy of small COM
ment in the face of more recent subjects
for gossip.